This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Golden State Warriors at the San Antonio Spurs
The Spurs held a 57-54 lead at halftime.
Q3: Keeping The Pressure On
Zaza Pachulia made a nifty scoop past LaMarcus Aldridge after both teams missed on their first opportunities, then Tony Parker threw the ball away to Pachulia, Draymond Green pushed the ball up, and found Klay Thompson for a triple on the right wing:
[protected-iframe id=”0a073651b35cf561dd929d579ae20972-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FCSNWarriors%2Fstatus%2F847282786700369920″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]That gave the Warriors their first lead of the game, 59-57.
After some empty possessions, Aldridge got stopped near the rim by Zaza, Kawhi Leonard airballed a desperation three at the shot clock buzzer for a violation.
On the next Golden State sequence, Klay missed a three, but Pachulia got the offensive board and dished out to Matt Barnes who found Stephen Curry for a swish from distance:
[protected-iframe id=”d6e4a88202372fa6541a35830eb9e445-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FCSNWarriors%2Fstatus%2F847283348699467780″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]San Antonio head coach Gregg Popovich called timeout as the Warriors moved ahead, 62-57.
Later, Curry dissected a path to the rim, but Pachulia missed, got his own rebound, and got fouled. Danny Green took a tough jumper off the dribble, then Draymond found Steph curling from the right wing and the splash on the catch gave the Warriors an improbable 67-59 lead with 7:31 remaining:
[protected-iframe id=”78dc600a05bec8105f4256799354a1b9-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fbballbreakdown%2Fstatus%2F847284906161971202″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]A couple possesions after that, Iguodala found Curry again on a curl…
[protected-iframe id=”c64f8ea0fe039ae0db355168042eb15b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F847286664594575366″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]…as Pau Gasol lost him on a switch, but Steph only added one more bucket on a drive past Gasol, while the Spurs got free throws from Gasol, an easy put-back banker by an open Leonard, Kawhi hit another jumper after JaVale McGee missed his second alley-oop dunk of the night from Steph, and Curry missed a pull-up three form the logo after not touching the ball for a few sequences.
The brick led to an Aldridge dunk with an and-one from behind by McGee, and with 3:10 to play, Kerr called a timeout before Aldridge’s bonus free throw tied the game at 72-72.
But out of the timeout, David West hit a baseline jumper, Patty Mills lost the ball to JaVale, who ran the break with Steph, giving the ball up to Curry at the right moment to get a lob back, and this time the dunk went through:
[protected-iframe id=”9c756c06ff4f60c09d624b21da4f6e65-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FWorld_Wide_Wob%2Fstatus%2F847288829912334336″ width=”360″ height=”360″ frameborder=”0″]After that, Iguodala took over with two dribble-and-pops, the second off another behind-the-back dribble lateral move, something he had already showed off in the first half.
Manu Ginobili and Gasol came back with a pick-and-roll for a dunk on Gasol’s slip to the rim, but Draymond scored inside against David Lee on a feed by Curry, Manu missed a three that Gasol boarded, then Lee lost the ball to Iguodala.
Andre advanced the outlet to Livingston, who found Curry for the breakaway dunk:
[protected-iframe id=”a4f46129b6b6786a1c807ffe9e2cebd2-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FJaeAzizi%2Fstatus%2F847289638007873536″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]With 8.9 seconds left, the Warriors sported an 84-77 lead.
With 3.8 ticks left, Lee attacked the rim, only to be denied by Draymond, with Lee grabbing the rim for an offensive goal-tending violation in the process.
Steph tried a heave from the hashmark at the buzzer over Mills, but the ball rimmed out.
Q4: West Tightens Grip On Spurs
Matt Barnes came in, but made a bad pass to Iguodala and Gasol capitalized with a layup on the catch, but Klay found West up top late in the shot clock. Instead of shooting it, West threaded a pass back to Thompson for a layup:
[protected-iframe id=”42dfb0ffd688d632b36fa000642cfe3f-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F847292459050610689″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]After a turnover, Ian Clark stopped a switched Gasol in his tracks and burned him for a layup.
Kyle Anderson got a layup of his own, but Clark came back and played catch with West, West lasering an assist back to Clark yet again for a lay-in.
Lee got a bucket over Klay, hitting Thompson in the jaw, and Kerr had to call timeout as Klay got his jaw looked at. He was okay.
West made a rare bad pass out of the timeout, Anderson scored a jumper, but Klay came back with a dribble-and-pop on the right baseline on Ginobili and Parker helping.
Manu answered with a trey up top, but Thompson came right back with a fading triple over Ginobili from the right wing, delivered by — you guessed it — West.
That kept the Spurs at bay, 95-88, with 7:51 remaining.
After a Lee spin move on Barnes, Shaun Livingston threw up top to West from the left baseline and West swished it, Lee missed a running hook, and West found Klay cutting again.
Thompson got caught in traffic, but calmly spun away to the baseline and drained the jumper, giving the Warriors a 99-90 lead as Popovich called a timeout.
Later, West got an offensive rebound and powered his way for two more, Lee took advantage of Barnes again in the paint, but Steph ran pick-and-roll with West and West got the bounce pass back for yet another drained jumper, Golden State now leading 103-93 with 5:07 to play.
West wasn’t done, swatting Lee from behind, then after a series of empty possessions which included a terrible cross-court pass attempt by Curry that went out of bounds, Mills drew three foul shots on Steph, his fifth personal, but Kerr left him in the game as Mills missed two of three free throws with 3:47 to go.
Dribbling up-court, Curry showed his disdain for the foul call:
[protected-iframe id=”7c9c74b69bf72a6664621d00d6161fdc-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fcjzero%2Fstatus%2F847296046107475970″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]West proved human as he missed a late three up top, Klay swatted a Mills reverse layup attempt at the other end, and Kawhi ended up mishandling the inbound from Mills, and time was ticking away for the Spurs, as Curry found West for a scoop, prompting another Popovich timeout as the Warriors maintained a 105-94 cushion with 2:51 left:
[protected-iframe id=”8a13a0ea2694fee2633178036bfd5ac2-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FNBA%2Fstatus%2F847296484257267712″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Out of the timeout, Leonard got an inside jam on a missed assignment, then Iguodala missed a lefty scoop, but Draymond threw the ball off a Spur to maintain possession with 2:18 remaining.
Steph ended up driving right past Aldridge, then Gasol, to tally his 29th point on the night, and Danny Green threw the ball away, all but putting a nail in the Spurs’ own coffin.
Klay missed a corner triple that would have put away the game, but Gasol missed, and Curry scissored around the San Antonio defense to find West open from the left wing.
The splash put an exclamation point on West and the Warriors’ night, and Golden State had a 110-96 lead with 52.4 seconds to play.
Popovich called timeout, cleared out his bench, and Kerr had Clark, Barnes, Patrick McCaw, James McAdoo, and McGee close out the final minute, with the final score at 110-98.
Here are some defensive highlights of the game for the Warriors:
[protected-iframe id=”53380d83c728479b799a7e9d41ca3a5e-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Fwarriors%2Fstatus%2F847317766952464385″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]Barnes did especially well on close-outs, although he did reach in too much on Leonard:
[protected-iframe id=”f73124a3aa3ceff12c95998d5dfa0db6-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FGSWOutsiders%2Fstatus%2F847543830110814208″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”4490fdee328d47c34ef47712afad895b-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FGSWOutsiders%2Fstatus%2F847545104520798208″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”1832d6f6392f6086b35ceefdc4faf569-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FGSWOutsiders%2Fstatus%2F847546294205792256″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″] [protected-iframe id=”7ed6601af3d9c4c268d960289cbff0af-114320562-10106876″ info=”http://twitframe.com/show?url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2FGSWOutsiders%2Fstatus%2F847547171746398208″ width=”360″ height=”250″ frameborder=”0″]The Warriors (61-14), took a three-game lead over the Spurs for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference playoff race, and will head back to the Bay Area to face the Rockets again in two nights at Oracle.
[twitter-follow screen_name=’poormanscommish’ show_count=’yes’]
(Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account via @alibcherry)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
